r/TransformersRPG • u/SlutScream • Feb 11 '26

Skill Costs

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So I'm hoping this doesn't seem like a stupid question, but I'm honestly confused regarding the costs of skills in certain areas.

With Roles and Focuses, the rules specifically say that you "gain a rank" or similar without any other qualifications aside from making sure it matches the appropriate essence. Maybe I'm missing something, but that sounds like you get the skills/ranks for free without needing to spend essence points on them.

Is this the case? The wording, honest to God, just isn't clear enough to me and I'm tempted to just say they're free, since that's what would be most fun for me.

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u/cbwjm Feb 11 '26

You don't need to spend essence points because the training grants you those essence points. The skills chosen from this increase needs to be spent on one of the smarts skills listed and one of the strength skills listed.

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u/SlutScream Feb 11 '26

So as I'm understanding it, you get 16 points over all from your Origin and Role, and then training gives you additional ranks/skills/specs in addition?

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u/cbwjm Feb 11 '26

You get 16 points total. 12 points to distribute as you wish 1 from your origin 2 from your role, and 1 from the role's focus.

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u/SlutScream Feb 11 '26

Right, and then training is worded in such a way that you get additional skills or ranks on top of those.

It seems at least one other person seems to be having the same issue, so good to know I'm not alone lol. As written, there's simply zero cost tied to the increase. You just get to have them in addition to the 16 points.

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u/cbwjm Feb 11 '26

No, those 2 points are part of the 16. When you finish building your level 1 character you will have a total of 16 essence points. See page 23 of the core rule book, it explains where those 16 points come from.

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u/SlutScream Feb 11 '26

I'm familiar. I made sure to read those portions again and again when I was trying to figure this out, since I wanted to make extra certain I wasn't missing something.

I'm honestly not seeing where the Training increases deduct from the 16. You may be right, but I'm just not seeing that in the text. I'll look back over things again tomorrow when I'm up, but I'm probably just going to settle on the increases being extra, since that's what I'm reading and because that'd be more fun for me.